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A review by berls
Along Came a Spider by Kate SeRine
5.0
My top thoughts:
This series is FANTASTIC and this may be my favorite so far? We already knew both the main characters fairly well from the previous two books and I was so eager for their story. And it surpassed my hopes and expectations – not just in their romance and character development, but in the plot as well.
What I liked/didn’t like:
I think one of the things I’m enjoying most about this series is the way it’s breathing life into often ignored fairy tale / nursery rhyme / fictional characters (called Tales) and combining them with familiar ones. We started with Tess “Red” Little (Little Red Riding Hood), a more familiar character that gets lots of attention. But then we drifted it a little with Lavendar (Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother). And now we’re so far off the beaten path with Trish Muffet… Little Miss Muffet! I doubt she’s ever had a book and definitely not one like this. I already knew I loved her from the previous books, but there was so much more to her than I knew. She’s a no-nonsense, tough as hell, forensic scientist for the FMA (Fairytale Management Authority). And I just love the way the nursery rhyme about the spider is all twisted into something so much more in this book. And then her love interest – Nicky Blue – is little Boy Blue (again, way off the beat path)! And I also knew I loved him from previous books. He’s a good bad guy – in that he’s plays on the wrong side of the law, but he’s not out to hurt people – and he’s built wealth for himself in the Here and Now after being a nobody in Make Believe. I felt for him instantly, as his wife (Juliet, from Romeo and Juliet) was killed in book one and he’s tormented over his inability to protect her. He’s busy seeking vengeance. I think if I have one complaint it would be that everyone is Red’s Ex and I like to start seeing stories where she hasn’t slept with the love interest (and I do think those are coming). Not that this caused any friction in this book – Nicky is not in love with Red (though he does care for her) and Red is so in love with Nate. In fact, I also really loved seeing the continuation of her story – she’s pregnant – and Lavender’s story too – they visit! It’s nice the way old characters keep cropping back up.
Beyond the characters, the story is just fantastic. There’s a mystery element – I think these definitely qualify as Fantasy Mysteries/Detective stories. And we have a continuing element that has been a problem since the first book, namely Dracula. But we have a new player on the scene – The Agency – that’s very bad news for the Tales. Well, new in the sense that I think this is the first we’ve heard about them, but they’ve been around for a while. Just in the past two years (which is when book 1 started) they’ve been changing into more of a problematic player. I’ll let you read it and learn more about them for yourself, as you really truly must read this series. I do think you could hop into this one and understand what’s going on, but you’d miss out on a lot of background information and character development, so I wouldn’t recommend it. But they’re great, so why would you want to skip ahead?
This is truly a great combination of paranormal romance, urban fantasy, crime/detective genres to give you all awesomeness.
This series is FANTASTIC and this may be my favorite so far? We already knew both the main characters fairly well from the previous two books and I was so eager for their story. And it surpassed my hopes and expectations – not just in their romance and character development, but in the plot as well.
What I liked/didn’t like:
I think one of the things I’m enjoying most about this series is the way it’s breathing life into often ignored fairy tale / nursery rhyme / fictional characters (called Tales) and combining them with familiar ones. We started with Tess “Red” Little (Little Red Riding Hood), a more familiar character that gets lots of attention. But then we drifted it a little with Lavendar (Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother). And now we’re so far off the beaten path with Trish Muffet… Little Miss Muffet! I doubt she’s ever had a book and definitely not one like this. I already knew I loved her from the previous books, but there was so much more to her than I knew. She’s a no-nonsense, tough as hell, forensic scientist for the FMA (Fairytale Management Authority). And I just love the way the nursery rhyme about the spider is all twisted into something so much more in this book. And then her love interest – Nicky Blue – is little Boy Blue (again, way off the beat path)! And I also knew I loved him from previous books. He’s a good bad guy – in that he’s plays on the wrong side of the law, but he’s not out to hurt people – and he’s built wealth for himself in the Here and Now after being a nobody in Make Believe. I felt for him instantly, as his wife (Juliet, from Romeo and Juliet) was killed in book one and he’s tormented over his inability to protect her. He’s busy seeking vengeance. I think if I have one complaint it would be that everyone is Red’s Ex and I like to start seeing stories where she hasn’t slept with the love interest (and I do think those are coming). Not that this caused any friction in this book – Nicky is not in love with Red (though he does care for her) and Red is so in love with Nate. In fact, I also really loved seeing the continuation of her story – she’s pregnant – and Lavender’s story too – they visit! It’s nice the way old characters keep cropping back up.
Beyond the characters, the story is just fantastic. There’s a mystery element – I think these definitely qualify as Fantasy Mysteries/Detective stories. And we have a continuing element that has been a problem since the first book, namely Dracula. But we have a new player on the scene – The Agency – that’s very bad news for the Tales. Well, new in the sense that I think this is the first we’ve heard about them, but they’ve been around for a while. Just in the past two years (which is when book 1 started) they’ve been changing into more of a problematic player. I’ll let you read it and learn more about them for yourself, as you really truly must read this series. I do think you could hop into this one and understand what’s going on, but you’d miss out on a lot of background information and character development, so I wouldn’t recommend it. But they’re great, so why would you want to skip ahead?
This is truly a great combination of paranormal romance, urban fantasy, crime/detective genres to give you all awesomeness.